High-Performance Sensorless Control for High-Speed PMSM with Current Source Inverters

Abstract

Current source inverters (CSIs) are emerging as competitive alternatives to voltage source inverters (VSIs) for high-speed motor drives because they inherently suppress harmonic currents, offer output-voltage boosting, and reduce motor-side electromagnetic interference. Sensorless control of CSI-fed permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) remains less mature than VSI counterparts, primarily because conventional implementations require measurement of all circuit state variables. This paper proposes a weak-resonance-based approximation that reconstructs stator currents from inverter modulation commands and feedforward capacitor-current estimation, thereby reducing the sensing requirement to the dc-link current and two terminal voltages. The proposed observer--PLL structure is analysed for computational complexity and validated through simulations and experiments on a 100~W, 100~krpm GaN-based two-stage CSI prototype (buck + CSI). Quantitative results demonstrate accurate rotor-position tracking and high-bandwidth operation while maintaining the reduced sensor set. Proposed method performs well in simulation and experiment, achieving a position estimation error below $5^\circ$ at 100~krpm.